On June 1, 2016, the Criminal Matters Amendment Act 2015 came into effect and a new set of infra- structure-related crimes was established and placed before an already overburdened criminal justice system.
The new act set out to define new bail conditions, sentences for law- breakers and provided recommendations for jail terms of up to 30 years and fines on businesses of up to R100 million. The criminalisation of certain acts leading to damaging public infrastructure was new. All this was done to deter future offenders and to prevent such acts from recurring.
Many people expressed varying opinions regarding the need for the Criminal Matters
